self-same Matthew that Mark and Luke make mention of, because I find
no other Matthew among the apostles but he: Matthew the publican,
Matthew the man so deep in apostacy, Matthew the man of that ill fame
among his brethren. Love, in Mark and Luke, when they counted him
among the apostles, did cover with silence this his publican state
(and it is meet for Peter to call Paul his beloved brother, when Paul
himself shall call himself the chief of sinners); but faithfulness to
the world, and a desire to be abased, that Christ thereby, and grace
by him, might be advanced, made Matthew, in his evangelical writings,
call himself by the name of Matthew the publican. Nor has he lost
thereby; for Christ again to exalt him (as he hath also done by the
apostle Paul), hath set, by his special providence, the testimony
that this Matthew hath given of his birth, life, death, doctrine, and
miracles, in the front of all the New Testament.

(2.) The next publican that I find by the Testament of Christ, made
mention of by name, is Levi, another of the apostles of Jesus Christ.
This Levi also, by the Holy Ghost in holy writ, is called by the name
of James: not James the brother of John, for Zebedee was his father;
but James the son of Alpheus. Now I take this Levi also to be
another than Matthew; First, because Matthew is not called the son of
Alpheus; and because Matthew and Levi, or James the son of Alpheus,
are distinctly counted where the names of the apostles are mentioned
(Matt. x. 3) for two distinct persons: and that this Levi, or James
the apostle, was a publican, as was the apostle Matthew, whom we
mentioned before, is evident; for both Mark and Luke do count him
such. First, Mark saith, Christ found him when he called him, as he
also found Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom; yea, Luke words
it thus: "He went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at
the receipt of custom, and he said unto him, Follow me;" Mark ii. 14;